The present invention relates in general to new and useful improvements in light-weight casual lawn furniture, and more particularly, to knock-down and stackable chairs of light-weight plastic and aluminum material having supporting side frames with removable decorative inserts.
Casual outdoor lawn furniture is available in a wide variety of styles and manufactured from a variety of materials. In producing lawn furniture, it is desirable to select materials which are impervious to the weather such that the furniture will not rot, rust, corrode, etc., are readily available, and which are suitable for mass production techniques. Of the known materials, rigid plastic such as polyvinylchloride and aluminum have been extremely popular. These materials have the additional advantage of being light-weight such that the resulting lawn furniture may be easily moved and stored. Lawn furniture constructed from reinforced plastic material is known, for example, from Schwartz et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,368.
Lawn furniture of plastic material is typically of knock-down construction enabling the furniture to be shipped unassembled in cartons to the retailer and conveniently carried by the ultimate purchaser to one's home for assembly. Casual furniture of this type, such as chairs and chaise lounges, are known to be constructed from a pair of spaced side frames to which there is attached the main body supporting portion of the chair or chaise lounge. In order to enhance the aesthetic and ornamental appeal of such casual furniture, decorative inserts are removably secured to the side frames. These inserts are generally in the nature of spokes arranged in various patterns having their opposing ends extending into openings within the side frames. Although this construction enables easy installation of the spokes, it also enables easy inadvertent removal of the spokes from the side frames. As a result, the spokes once inadvertently removed can become damaged or lost necessitating their replacement in order to maintain the aesthetic appearance of the casual furniture. One can therefore appreciate that there is a need for the construction of casual furniture having decorative inserts whose construction prohibits the inserts from being inadvertently removed to prevent damage or loss thereof.
Similar type decorative inserts constructed of spokes or other forms are employed in the design of casual furniture constructed from aluminum. Typically, aluminum casual furniture are of welded construction and do not possess the characteristic knock-down feature known from casual furniture constructed from plastic material. The welding of the inserts to the side frames avoids their inadvertent removal and insures the integrity of the furniture.
As the welded aluminum furniture must, of necessity, be shipped fully constructed, it is desirable for space saving to enable stacking of a plurality of items of lawn furniture such as chairs for shipment in a single carton. This cannot be achieved with casual furniture having fixed decorative inserts which interfere with their ability to be stacked and therefore necessitate their singular shipment. Here again, there is a need for casual welded aluminum furniture having removable decorative inserts which enable stacking of the furniture to facilitate shipment in single cartons, as well as storage by the ultimate consumer.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide knock-down and stackable chairs having replaceable side frame inserts that avoids some of the foregoing disadvantages of prior casual lawn furniture.
Another object of the present invention is to provide knock-down light-weight casual lawn furniture constructed of reinforced plastic material having replaceable decorative side frame inserts which are constructed to inhibit their removability once installed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a light-weight casual lawn furniture constructed of aluminum having removable decorative side frame inserts to enable stacking of plural chairs during shipment in single cartons and during storage by the end user.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds.